The Decentralist Papers · Paper XII of XX

What Dies

The Eliminated

Roy W. Gurner · December 31, 2025 · 1 min read

Gerrymandering: Districts of 30,000 cannot be carved up. And there’s no election to game anyway. Sortition makes gerrymandering mathematically and practically impossible.

Lobbying: You cannot buy 20,000+ random citizens distributed across the continent. There’s no single location to concentrate. No campaigns to fund. No favors to trade.

Career politicians: One term. Go home. Live under the laws you passed. No building power over 40 years. No becoming a stranger to normal life.

The DC bubble: No one lives there. The city becomes a historical district, not a power center.

Complex taxation: Two numbers: 10% and 10%. No loopholes. No 75,000 pages. No armies of accountants.

Overlapping jurisdictions: Clear hierarchy. President → State CEO → Representatives. Everyone knows who’s responsible.

Congressional staff: No chiefs of staff, legislative directors, press secretaries. Just citizens reading bills and voting.

State legislatures: Redundant. The 20,000+ representatives handle federal legislation. State CEOs handle operations.

Local political offices: Professionals run operations. Representatives vote. No more 500,000 elected officials.

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